Monday, July 17, 2017

How Much Does the Stock Market Have to Increase By for Every American to Retire?

More than what it's gonna!


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even $500k seems low.

25 years of retirement, portfolio growth rate of 5%, you're talking $35,476 a year to deposit (and that's if you're don't care about leaving anything for your kids). Add a bit for social security, and we're talking what, $48k a year in income? Doable if you want to spend your retirement years watching Game of Thrones reruns, I guess.

Really, I can't imagine going into retirement w/ under $1m in investments. If I'm not there, I'll just keep working. Some of the healthiest 80-somethings I know are the ones who keep agency in life anyway, versus reducing themselves to loafing around the house all day.

Moderately speaking, I think a 25 year old should start saving $6300 a year towards retirement if they want to reach $1,000,000 by 70 in current year dollars (that assumes portfolio growth outpaces inflation by around 5%, which could be a stretch). Like you said before, go ahead and take social security, too; you'd have responsibly saved and invested it had you been allowed to keep it, so not your fault that politicians treat SS as an unappropriated grab bag of funds. Come away with your $8k a month and be comfortable.

Southern Man said...

Well, let's do some math. Conventional wisdom says you need a million in assets to retire. Let's say that sixty million Americans accomplish this. That's sixty trillion dollars, or ALL OF THE MONEY THAT CURRENTLY EXISTS.

So, the answer to your question is - well, let's print more money. That should end well.

Grizzly said...

I always take these numbers with a huge grain of salt though, because so much of it depends on where and how you live.

If you live in Orange County CA and make your meals out of "organic fair trade" groceries you bought at Whole Foods and wash them down with aged French wine before a night of playing the latest most expensive video games with your frigid Asian wife while a light fog rolls off the ocean, then that $1 million won't get you far.

If you live in Wyoming and make your meals out of deer and antelope you shot on the 40 acres you bought for $12,000 and wash them down with aged homebrew mead before an energetic TV-less night with your physically fit blond country wife while the wind and snow come screaming over the prairie, then that most of that $1 million will still be there to take care of your grandchildren.